vancouver

[abstract]

Greetings, fellow freestylers! Call me G [ insert funktastic adjective here ]. I am an extremely reserved individual, and I apologize if I ever come off like a jerk. I wish only the best, for you AND yours. I first started playing footbag in high school, probably around grade 11 ( 1998? ). I remember being instantly captivated when I came upon footbag.org, yet it took several years for the dedication to really sink in. I started out in Kingston, Ontario, where I met Jason Lee, the best player I had ever seen at that time. He was really cool. He lived above a chinese restaurant run by his parents, and we would always score the sweet goods after our sessions ( which would take place directly outside the restaurant ). He taught me how important control was, as at the time, I could do tiltless strings, but I would be moving all over the circle, muscling in on other's positions.

Things cooled off for several years as I bounced around after graduating, not really sure where I wanted to go. In January of 2003, I moved to Vancouver, BC, where I met Chard Cook. Chard has been a huge influence on my game, and his dedication to the sport is phenomenal. I started schooling again, and began to really take it seriously. By the summer of 2003, I was starting to put simple BOP-style strings together. I remember heading down to the Art Gallery one afternoon ( my prime session locale in Vancouver ) to see the craziest styler that I had ever seen. I didn't even understand what was going on, but I knew it was hardcore. I stood there with my boombox watching for about half an hour, my jaw resting comfortably on the pavement below, before I decided to bust into the circle. The crazy man introduced himself as Allan Haggett, and my perception of the sport was catapulted to new heights. I remember him telling me that I had the energy to play freestyle, which was an inspirational moment for me.

I have many cunning plans, yet they often fall astray due to lack of motivation. This will be my attempt at solidifying my goals and marking my progress in all areas of this wonderful sport. Now is the optimal time to begin, as I am nearing full recovery from an injury I sustained several months ago.

I wish you all the best in your styling endeavours. Work hard, play harder!

GjR.!

Edited for your viewing pleasure

[abstract]

I visited a clinic yesterday, as my ankle has been bothering me for the past week or so. The physician took one look at my shoes and told me to replace them immediately. The outer side of both of my work shoes were worn down about twice as much as the inside, meaning I have a tendency to roll on the outside of my foot when I walk. I haven't replaced the shoes yet, but I focused all day on walking with more pressure on the inside/arch, and all the pain disappeared. Hooray! I must remember to incorporate this when I begin to shred again.

I remember going to the Canadian Open last year, and the shoes I wore were entirely worn through to the ground in the toe area on both shoes, as well as the outside surfaces. I had held them together with duct tape, hoping they would stay together through the event. I still keep those shoes around. They fit like a glove. Good ole Gumbies! Twice as light as Lavers, but no toe box to be found. It's probably why I had no toe game before they were replaced.

Hilarious Move of the Minute: Gyro Whirling PDX Barroque! Gyro Whirling seems like a concept that could be seriously abused, since your body is wide open after the whirl dex is clear, maybe even more so than Surging. Both are totally rediculous! I envy anyone who can nail these sets consistently. Hooray for Cheese Processor!

[abstract]

my mind spills forth like bees from a hive; slightly disoriented, but with great vigor

footbag is good. indeed, it is a severe indulgence. it there a point where the indulgence can turn to productivity? the passion is there, but the focus is lacking. in a way, footbag has acted as a mirror into other facets of my lifestyle; the things that push my game are often similar to what pushes me forward in social interactions. same for the bad. of course, this just means it is all part of the same thing, and it cannot be broken, lest the symbiotic nature be rended apart. focus? INDEED. if it is complete, then as a whole i will move forward. PRICE of PROGRESS.

specifically ( ie. game-oriented hoo haa ).!:

iankle is feeling stronger. still not ready. stretching has commenced again. left hamstring is quite sore, most likely from the stress of fracture and inactivity. the past 4 months has consisted of my body congealing into a mass of useless flesh. the ideal time to sculpt. there is always a second chance when every day is a new beginning. a refreshing thought, but does it ring true? objectivity is very important with such things. maintenance of an ideal beyond it's creation is key.

Such & Such:

things that excite me include fairy, quantum, blazing, & spinning,. Has anyone ever hit fairy quantum anything? that set seems almost impossible. mayhaps working fairy symple drifter like mad would help.

the level of talent that exists in this sport is unreal. avoiding intimidation can be difficult, but can be surpassed with acceptance and humility with well defined goals.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO

a. be fully healed by December 1.

b. organize Vancouver Footbag. there are plenty of us around, so we should kick it up a notch.

3. emerge from this coccoon i have made for myself. will require further ponderings.

f. finish editing video by December 1.

17. have website ready for upload by December 24.


"I'm swimming in my own soilent waste. It's a good thing." - Martha Stewart's head

[mosher]

Hey Greg!

I am currently holding the scene steady in Kingston. I have met Jason once, last year when i had just started. He is so powerful!

Do you know Neil Bearse or Jezreel Trepanier?

Good to hear you are still shredding.

Peace,
Tom

[BainbridgeShred]

Allan Hagget=Gawd

[abstract]

Hello, Mr. Tom.

news flash EXTRAORDINAIRE mayhaps -> KINGSTON VOYAGE IMMINENT during festivities of red and/or white ( no, you go home canada. it's santa's turn to play. come back in a few months )

I may have played with Neil a few times before. Did he play with Jason back in the day?

-

how did i get this far in footbag with such messed up feet? well, I WILL TELL YOU, MY FRIENDS, via ClogBlog.

long story short, i've always had weak ankles. skating was a problem for me. i remember playing ice hockey in rubber boots, then just sliding across the ice to take people down. scoring was not a priority.

i believe in an earlier stage of life known as pre-adult non-baby, i was pigeon-toed. 'how cute.' I PUNCH YOU. wait a sec, i reconsidered. you're actually an alright guy/girl, I'm not really offended. my feet are corrected, but i harsh land on the outsides of my feet when i land. yesterday, in an effort to REDUCE MISERY, i procured some european clogs from none other than the House of Clogs. i can't cloggin' believe how friggin' clog these clogs are. no clog, man. within 5 minutes of putting these [ rhymes with epilogues ] on, i felt my my [ spinal column ] straighten with the most solid support i've ever felt in a [ foot apparatus ]. WOOTYOHEEMIAN.

for the first time, my ankle and leg feels strong after a day at work. i'm almost scared to get excited about playing again, lest i shatter my poor, delicate illusions of grandeur.

has anyone ever hit quantum atomic set? toe shooting, i suppose? i'd like to see toe shooting illusion / flail.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaand i'm off.

[abstract]

oh, what a wonderful life is this!

i played footbag last night. it felt amazing just to kick the bag around for a while.

I had a few decent strings, but nothing longer than 10 contacts

50 Clippers bsos

Blender -> PDX Blender -> Blender

all my sets are kaput. my right pixie is managable, but my left is useless. stepping was atrocious, yet i stepped cleanly out of some whirls, and that made me happy.

My goddagblasted shoulders are the biggest detriment to my game right now. They are so stiff while I play that the emphasis is taken away from my legs and is focused on my neck and shoulders. I believe it is largely psychological, which should make things easy. I just need to focus.

I'm playing footbag again this evening with Kirk. Woo woo foosenvaagen!

GjR.!

[james]

What's up G, your blog rocks.

Toe shooting (ie wonton fairy) has already been hit (I can hit it) and is called wontomic I believe. I wonder if it's possible to do it non-symp, because you'd have to plant REALLY damn fast and swing the other leg over and still have enough height on the bag for it to still be a set.
I think i'll give it a try to test the level of feasabillity.
Nick can hit gyro whirling. It is such a rad looking set.
I've also got a couple sets in the works right now
You know what set I looooooove? Rev. whirling! It's so damn cool.

Peace

[abstract]

james, danka pour les prizzops!

this weekend saw the resurgence of SANITY. i played footbag not once, but twice! and i'm not a cripple today!

slow and steady wins the race. i am like a turtle, but more like a ninja turtle than one who sits on the road waiting to test his shell.

the dealie:

Px Whirl & PDX Whirl BSOS
Diving Clip -> Weaving Clip -> Zulu Clip RPT
Weaving Clip -> Diving Osis RPT
Drifter -> Ripwalk BSOS

kirk hit Whirling Swirl!!! he's growing fast.

after sessioning it up w/ kirkenheimer, i played at the art gallery and met a young fellow named anthony who seems interested in learning more. he hit mirage, rake, pendulum, clip and osis.

I'm off to commit myself to the slave pits of the corporate world. toodles.

GjR.!

[abstract]

so matt and kirk have given me the affectionate nickname of

Greg "Everybody Hates Me Motherfucking" Raymond.

I am enthralled...and I hate you.

Frontside is the bane of my existence. Kirk beat me down in tiltless FS battles yesterday. The main problem is that as soon as illusion enters the picture, the run ends. Oh, how elusive thou art! But I must master thee, for thou art the gatekeeper to grifter and flux! If anyone has pointers on illusion ( full downtime style ), hook a brotha!

Adios, muchachos.

[abstract]

ugh. work is like attempting to survive after The Don has cemented my feet to the bottom of the river. luckily my brain has a safety override for just these occasions; thoughts of delicious footbag permeate my starving body like the oxygen i require to live.

hooray for fun! and, also, in addition to that, sanity is overrated.

i have a combo i would like to hit tonight, but i'm not sure if my body is ready for it yet...actually a few combos. we'll see how they go. Blazing Osis -> Weaving Clip -> Blazing Butterfly RPT & Px Whirl -> Torque -> Blur RPT

my game is already much more stable than before my injury, but i'm not up to the level i was before as of yet. i really need to just drill the shizzazzle out of components.

james: any luck with the bust-down? i'd REALLY like to see your Wonton Fairy action jackson. That's the BIZAYBIZOMB.

Word is bond.

[james]

The main thing about wonton fairy is making it look nice, cuz it can be done BUTT ugly. I attempted non-symp version and it does seem possible but it takes a hellot of effort.
Did you hit any of those combos? They are phat.

[abstract]

last evening i diverted from my normal routine of shred, shred, shred and started applying some structure to my training.

i started out with the goal of 2000 toe stalls, as i have the underlying suspicion that the foundation of my frontside game is entirely corrupted. each time i dropped the bag while doing toe stalls, i set $0.25 aside. the funds accumulated in this manner will be devoted to my footbag travel fund.

while working these toe stalls, i noticed that my focus is entirely erratic. i attempted to zone out everything but the count, but after 50 or 60, my mind would start to wander again. i had smoked a bowl a little while before i had started playing. for the rest of the week, i will abstain from pot and see how my focus is affected.

when i reached 920 toe stalls, my legs started to ache in a more-than-muscle kind of way, so i stopped the count. for hilarity's sake, here was the breakdown...

136
92
17
37
25
42
131
97
216
42
17
68

920 toe stalls = $3.00 in the vault

tonight i shall shred with kirkbeast, and attempt some of those combos i mentioned earlier.

also, anyone who digs heavy production value in their tunes should check out:

http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html

DJ DangerMouse mixes The Beatles' "The White Album" and Jay-Z's "The Black Album" into "The Grey Album".

[abstract]

wednesday night: Paradox Box united! matt, kirk and i played together for the first time in what feels like several lifetimes compressed into a delicious time sandwich, realistically spanning several months.

illusions are comin', baby! i am starting to feel the right motion for them. i will continue to school them and the other frontside 2's this evening. sadly, my body is not yet ready for wacky combos. components to school:

blazing / whirl
duck / dive / zulu / weave
atomic / quantum
SPINNING

that'll keep me all tuckered out for now.

james: you are correct, sah, what with the reverse whirling sets being all up in my face with their stupid fresh style. reverse whirls are highly underrated ( besides dyno, it's almost never used ). oh well, that leaves it to us to exploit it. it is unfortunate mine are ugly as sin. and i don't know if you've seen sin lately, but he has this really nasty goiter on his neck that makes me want to ralph.

keep it surreal.

[abstract]

haven't played, long time! me go crazy, bang bang with feet! impatience present, playing tomorrow with Matt & Kirk; must bait my senses with other things

while fooling around in barefeet, i hit clip -> flapper -> ducking flapper -> ducking flapper

i hope i can make it to chilly philly. that would be soooooo dope.

I am off to party like it is December 9, 2004.

[abstract]

Worked on a little vid this weekend.

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/3618

Fooling around with footage is fun. End result is craving for shred.

Edit: Sorry about the file size. My encoding skills are not up to snuff.

[abstract]

i dream all day of a time when i can play all day, every day. the truth is that my body is seriously damaged, and at this point it needs more than just time to heal. i have to get serious about healing, so that i can become serious about footbag. i found my diet sliding downwards since my injury, due to minor depression related to said incident. i've now switched over from a heavy bread and cheese laden diet to pasta, fresh fruit and vegetables, oatmeal, and chicken. i already notice a difference in my mood, and my legs feel stronger as well. i hope to be in playing form by the time Chilly Philly rolls around, but at this point, i can't say for sure. i will play once this weekend to test my limitations. i mostly want to get to a point where i can start learning new concepts, as now i'm struggling to gain back what i had. i'd really like to learn swirl, and school whirling set till it is butter. little combos that i think about often are

pdx blender -> twirl rpt
blazing butter -> food processor rpt
any osis move to swirl / blazing

i'm not even close to any of these combos, but they are definite goals for me. realistically, most of my time will go to schooling duck/dive/zulu/weave and spinning to keep the impact on my body as low as possible. will write more after my session this weekend.

[abstract]

had a bomb ass shred yesterday with Jaxon and Kirk. so much fun!! it was good to just get out and kick it up. Jaxon hadn't played in about four months, but he was still hitting some good stuff. he always performs his dexes without planting his foot, which ends up looking quite stylish with moves like pixie ss rev whirl ( he footed pixie ss rev whirling swirl ) & stepping ss butter swirl. kirk was close to whirling swirl again. his style is becoming very good! i had to take frequent breaks to rest my legs, but i hit some alright stuff.

27 ducking clippers
weaving clip->diving clip->zulu clip rpt
whirl->drifter x 4
osis->torque->op osis->torque->run
pdx blender & px symp rev whirl in a run
pdx illusion->symple dyno

drifters feeling better. ducking becoming consistent. symple dynos feel so cool! i'll have to learn symp whirl so i can work symple blender as well. looks like i'll be taking it easy till the ktown bust at the end of the month.

[abstract]

i loooooooooove the feeling of goobuldie wobblidy legs the day after a hard shred. i will hopefully have a short sesh before i go east.